Process of preparing explosive compounds



' UNirnn STATES PATENT @rnrcn.

SILAS ll. DIVIXE, OF LOCH SHELDRAKE, NE\V YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE KEN D ROCK IOvVDER COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

ROCESS OF PREPARING EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 289,755, dated December 4, 1863. Au ication filed July 23,1883. (No specimens.)

1 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SILAS R. DIVINE, of Loch Shel drake, Sullivan county, State of New York, and a citizen of the United States, have invented an Improved Process for Preparing Explosive Compounds, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

The object of my'present invention is to provide a process for uniting the ingredients of an explosive compound when such ingredients consist of a solid ingredient-such as chlorate of potash-and a liquid ingredient such as nitro-benzoleso that entire accuracy as regards the relative proportions in which said ingredients are united will be at all times 'at ai ued, even when the combinationiseffeeted.

by an unskilled laborer.

My invention consists of first saturating the solid ingredient of chlorate of potash with a mixture composed of the liquid ingredient of nitro-benzole and a volatile fluid-such as bi- I sulphide of earbonthe proportions of the conportion thereof relatively to stituents of said mixture being such that the quantity of nitro-benzole contained in the mixture absorbed by the chlorate of potash in the said saturation will be the proper proportion of the nitro-benzole relatively to the chlorate of potash in the compound, and then allowing the volatile fluid to evaporate and escape from the mass.

In determining the proportions of the said constituents of the said mixture, I add to the quantity of the liquid ingredient of the explosive compound, which is the proper prothe chlorate of potash in' said compound, such a quantity of bisulphide of carbon as will make a fluid volume equal to the total fluid-absorbing capacity of the chlorate of potash-as, for example, I add to the proper proportion of nitrobenzole relatively to the chlorate of potash in the explosive about one-half its volume of bisulphide of carbon, the total fluid-absorbing capacity of chlorate of potash being about onethird more than the fluid volume of said a proper relative proportion of the nitro-benzole.

it is desiiable and intended that the said mixture of the liquid ingredient of the explosive and the said volatile fluid should be had in a convenient vessel, and should be furnished to r of potash-41nd the ordinary laborer or unskilled workman who is to effect the combination of the ingredients of the explosive. The workman is then called upon to exercise no discretion or skill in his labor, but simply allows the solid ingredientto absorb and saturate itself with the said mixture, which he accomplishes by permittingthe solid to soak in the mixture; It should be understood that the chlorate of potash is employed in a crushed or powdered state; and I find that the saturation of the solid ingredient by the said mixture will be effected in from about twenty minutes to two hours, depending upon the temperature and other conditions of the atmosphere, and upon the diameter of thelmasso th solid.

Upon eifectin g the saturation as above stated, the workman then simply removes the saturated mass of the ingredients from the described mixture and exposes-it to the air in any convenient place foracomparatively short space of time-say from about fifteen to forty minutes-when the volatile fluid evaporates and escapes from the mass. The solid and liquid ingredients of the explosive will then be left united in a wet or moist mass, and ready for immediate use as a blasting compound;

It is evident that explosive compounds in which the solid ingredient is perchlorate or permanganate of potash, and in which the liquid ingredient is composed of another liquid nitro compoundthan nitro-benzole, or of a nonvolatile fluid hydrocarbon in a free state, may have their ingredients united by the employment of my described process.

Other volatile fluids than bisulphide of carbon may be employed as the volatile fluid in the herein-described mixture for saturation, the essential condition being observed that said fluid shall possess the quality of .rapid volatility at ordinary temperatures, and also that it shall contain nothing which will embarrass or interfere with the operation of the final compound as an explosive.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The describedprocess of preparin g explosive compounds composed of two ingredients, one a solidsuch as crushed or powdered chlorate the other a liquid-such as nitro-benzole-which consists in first saturatabsorbing mass of the chlorate of potash in 10 mg the chlorate of potash with a mixture of the explosive, and then allowing the said volathe 'nitro-benzole and avolatile fluid-such as tile fluid to evaporate and escape from the mass, bisulphide of carbonthe proportions of the substantially as and for the purpose specified. constituents of said mixture bein such that the quantity of the nitro-benzole e zjntained in SILAS DIVINE the mixture absorbed by the chlorate of pot- \"itnesses:

ash in said saturation will be the proper pro- A. S. FITCH,

portion of said nitro-benzole relatively to the \VM. T. FARNHAM. 

